Re: e-book pricing? again

Hi Jason

which do you think are the cheapest hosting option for ebook sales? 
also do you think it's better to have a 1 page website for each ebook 
or one website for all the ebooks?

Regards

--- In [email protected], Jason Turgeon 
<jason.turgeon@...> wrote:
>
> My reply to Judy is inline below:
> 
> I do have the expense of automated digital delivery (a
> > percentage of each sale).
> 
> 
> This cost should be negligible, especially if you are not using 
DRM.  You
> can get a website for $4 a month with more than enough storage and 
bandwidth
> to cover all your needs.  I've been very happy with 
dot5hosting.com, who
> have pretty much everything you could want, including an online 
shopping
> cart tool.  The $4 price is the discount you get if you sign up for 
2
> years.  I've seen hosting even cheaper, they're just the ones I use.
> 
> But not everything can be computed in monetary
> > output. I have several years of my life invested in researching 
and
> > writing
> > the book. And, sorry folks, that's worth something. Does the fact 
that the
> > words are in digital format make the content of my book any less 
valuable?
> 
> 
> To some extent, yes.  The reading public knows that you have lower 
costs,
> and we also do not have a killer device like the Ipod that makes 
ebooks more
> desirable than their paper equivalent yet.  Plus, people are 
accustomed to
> getting information for free from the internet--like it or not, 
that's
> something you will have to grapple with.
> 
> If I merely deducted the cost of printing from the cover price of 
my "paper"
> > book ($18.95), I'm down to $16.95.
> 
> 
> I don't know much about publishing, but I'd guess that it costs a 
lot more
> than $2 to print a book, unless you're working at huge scales like 
Steven
> King paperbacks.  Link below is to a book at Lulu.com whose author 
is
> charging no royalties.  Note that the PDF version is free and the 
print
> version is $16.98, without royalties.  I don't know what Lulu is 
making
> after expenses, but I doubt it's $14.98.  Link:
> http://www.lulu.com/geekauthor
> 
> I've seen folks on this list (and elsewhere) proclaim that they 
would NEVER
> > pay more than $10 for an ebook.
> 
> 
> Well, then, give the customers what they want!  Price the book 
below $10!
> You aren't going to get much better free market research info than 
that.
> 
> Yes, there are many free books out there,
> > and yes, one could download enough of them to provide reading 
material for
> > the rest of their lives. But the question is, do I WANT to read 
those
> > books?
> > Do most of them contain enough 'new' and thought provoking 
material to
> > make
> > reading them worthwhile? I'm sure the answer is Yes for some free 
books.
> > But
> > when one has spent several years of his or her life researching 
and
> > writing
> > a unique book, whose content isn't found anywhere else, doesn't 
that
> > deserve
> > some recompense?
> 
> 
> It does, but at some point in the last few years, content has 
started to
> become a commodity.  I'm not saying that's fair, I'm just saying 
that it is
> the reality that authors and publishers have to deal with.  And I 
think that
> it's worth noting that producing a great book is not a guarantee of 
monetary
> reward.  Well before e-books, many wonderful authors languished in
> obscurity.  Your task is to make sure you don't become another 
one.  Pricing
> competitively will help avoid that.
> 
> Bottom line--shouldn't the price of an ebook be based, at least in 
part, on
> > the value of the material in the book? Should the format totally 
dictate
> > the
> > price? I'm putting out an ebook primarily as a convenience for 
folks
> > abroad
> > for whom shipping and customs graft make buying the "paper" book
> > impractical. Because it will still cost me to provide digital 
delivery of
> > the book, I plan to charge $12. That's better than a 35% saving 
on the
> > p-book.
> 
> 
> Again, it shouldn't cost you much at all to provide digital 
delivery.  I
> don't think $12 is outlandishly high, but I don't know the market 
for your
> specific type of book.  What I do know is that you should work out, 
through
> trial and error, what price will maximize your profit.  If you sell 
5000
> copies at $4, you make $20,000.  If you sell 1500 copies at $12, 
you make
> only $18,000, just as you do if you sell 6000 copies at $3 or 3000 
copies at
> $6.   Since your objective is to maximize profit, I'm suggesting 
that you
> price your book with that in mind.
> 
> I would suggest (based purely on my own subjective internet 
searching
> experience and my own gut feeling) that you price an ebook between 
35 and
> 50% less than it's paper price.  Using my 35-50% guideline, your 
book ($15
> postpaid in print) should be somewhere between $7 and $10.  It 
appears that
> you've already discovered your paper book sells better with a 20% 
discount.
> Why not price the e-book at $9.95 and extend the 20% discount to 
the ebook
> version, too, so that it comes out to about $8?
> 
> I'm sorry, but I'm not independently wealthy. I can't afford to 
work for
> > several years for nothing. Although I believe strongly in my work 
and
> > would
> > like to see it widely circulated, I've found that people tend to 
equate
> > what
> > they pay for something with the value inherent in the object. If 
one is
> > willing to give it away, it must not be worth much! I'm not 
saying I agree
> > with that, but it's human nature!
> >
> > What am I missing here? Why shouldn't ebooks be priced 
commensurate with
> > their uniqueness and value, while still respecting the different 
format?
> 
> 
> I think that authors tend to fall into two camps:  those who expect 
to be
> well compensated for their hard work (a fair sentiment), and those 
who
> produce their work for reasons that have nothing to do with money 
(a noble
> cause).  Now that the internet has given both camps a method to 
achieve
> their goals, but placed them in direct competition with each other, 
there is
> some friction here.  How you cope with this new element will help 
determine
> your success.
> 
> I also think that many authors fall into the trap that the RIAA 
has, where
> they think that an electronic file is a direct substitute for a 
physical
> product.  If you sell an ebook for $8, it does not mean that you 
have lost
> $7 because that customer would have purchased the paper book for $15
> otherwise.  It simply means you have another $8 in your pocket.  
There's the
> very real possibility that the lower price and convenience got the 
consumer
> to buy the ebook even though they would not have purchased a paper 
version
> under any circumstances because of the higher price, shipping 
hassles, etc.
> 
> Jason
> --
> Visit http://textbookrevolution.org, the web's home for free 
textbooks and
> educational materials.
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>



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